Maxwell's Demon Soon A Reality?

DMiax writes "Reuters reports that a group of scientists from University of Edimburgh may have realized a nanomolecular engine - a Maxwell's Demon. The device selects and traps other molecules based on their direction of motion. Physicist James Maxwell first imagined the nano-scale device in 1867, and the research team cites him as the basis for their understanding of how lights, heat, and molecules interact. The device is powered by light, and may spur advances in nano-scale technology to new heights in coming years."

Ah, I love mass media science reporting

[hairykrishna]

"Journalist misses whole point of Maxwells demon, news at 11"

Now this...

[IAstudent]

is what I call a Maxwell's Demon [wikipedia.org]

His other not-so-famous work

[0xABADC0DA]

Pity the researchers weren't able to create Maxwell's lesser-known "Angel", a device that -- using no power at all -- sits on a barrier and sorts molecules based on their goodness. All matter composed of "charm", "up" and "top" quarks collect on one side, whereas matter composed of the hateful 'strange', 'down', and 'bottom' quarks collect on the other.

This would totally change the world in the short term by finally providing a means to mass-produce holy water, and eventually even purifying the entire world of 'evil' particles (ie collect all the hateful particles together, send them up on the 'space elevator to heaven' and launch into the void).

Start command

[Anonymous Coward]

Forget thermodynamics, is the command to start the demon /etc/init.d/maxwell start?

Lack of diagrams

[LiquidCoooled]

I notice there wasn't a schematic or diagram of the engine, but I scoured the web and managed to find one.

Here it is:

      .

Re:I thought..

[QuickFox]

The actual action that the Daemon was performing is quite irrelevant, and so I take offense at the title of this story.

Mod parent funny. He expects accuracy on Slashdot.

Re:His other not-so-famous work

[isaac]

Flavorist! That strange quark never got to chose to be strange - it was just made that way. It's not fair to discriminate on that basis.

-Isaac

You're right, the naming is all wrong

[CrazyJim1]

This catches molecules instead of sorting them. It should be called Maxwell's cup.

Re:Possible to make unlimited energy?

[UbuntuDupe]

Good point. Yours *is* pretty big.

Now, as for my question, did you have a relevant comment to add?

Cowboy Neal's Demon

[PIPBoy3000]

I think we're seeing Cowboy Neal's Demon, a software utility that moves links about on a page to create infinite money for the developer.

Of course, such a thing can never happen in real life, so it's all theoretical.

Obligatory Simpson's quote

[avitzur]

"Lisa! In this house we obey the law of thermodymanics" - Homer Simpson.

Re:Article

[naoursla]

My cat didn't come home last week and might be dead right now, you insensitive clod!

Re:Article

[Poltras]

I think I saw Mr. Shroedinger put it in a box...

Kitty

[Mark_MF-WN]

As long as there's still some hope that the cat may be alive, it will exist in a superposition such that the living-cat component has some non-zero weight, which we will call XL.

Re:Light coming in?

[maxwells_deamon]

Poser!!!! ;-)

It's all a matter of being extremely nearsighted.

Well, I got to go back to my sorting.